Hello, welcome to my website. My name is John and I’m an English teacher in Hull, Yorkshire. I teach students from beginner to advanced level, at home, in the office or you can come to me. I’ve got 7 years of teaching experience in schools and one-to-one. I own lots of teaching and materials. See menu for prices and more infomation.
Below, you can find some interesting news stories in words and video.
Meet Linda, recent mother of six pups and now an adoptive mum to a litter of piglets. Her owner explained how this unique scenario came about.
The mother pig died but had already given birth, so he collected the piglets and brought them to his home where his dog had also had puppies. He put the babies together to see if the dog would accept them.
On the first day, she was a little hesitant, but she ended up giving the piglets milk. A week on, she would arrive of her own volition to feed the piglets.
Linda has now become something of a local attraction in the Cuban town of Playa Larga.
Difficult words: litter (a group of animals born at the same time), scenario (a situation), hesitant (unsure, undecided), of her own volition (of one’s own free will).
What happens if your childhood summer dream like building sandcastles gets bigger and bigger as you grow up? You build a 14-metre sandcastle, of course.
For weeks, international artists worked on their sandcastle, piling up tons of sand and carving fine details into the giant sculpture. One artist said that the build was not plain sailing after parts of it came down after just one week, but the team decided to carry on working.
Visitors came to Germany to see the castle being built and judged by the Guinness World Record officials. The officials confirmed that the current record stood at 13.97 metres and the new sandcastle measured in at 14.15 metres.
However, there was a problem. The artists forgot parts of wood in the castle which they used during the build, and according to the Guinness World Records, a sandcastle can only consist of sand and water. Therefore, they did not set a new Guinness World Record on that day.
Difficult words: pile up (to put things on top of each other), carve (cut to produce a design), plain sailing (smooth and easy progress in a process or activity).
Notting Hill is a district in North-west London and the place of the annual Notting Hill Carnival. It is Europe’s biggest street party and the second biggest carnival in the world.
It began in the ‘60s with only a few hundred attendees, but it has grown into a massive party. This year’s carnival was the 50th, and an estimated two million people came. The weather was nice and everybody had a good time.
However, there were also 9,000 people who were there to work – police officers. Some of them were involved in the fun, but they were there to keep people safe. One policewoman explained that they were trialling a face recognition technology there, which would identify people who should not be at the carnival.
Difficult words: annual (happening every year), attendee (somebody who attends/is at an event), estimated (guessed, not counted one by one), trial (test something).
Another article from the fantastic newsinlevels.com, this version is advanced – level 3. Visit their website for more.
They’ve always been man’s best friend and now they’ve found a new way to win people over – by becoming “barktenders“. Yes, these dogs have been trained to deliver people beer.
“What’s the name of the bar?” I hear you asking. Bar D’Alsace-tian. And yes, it is Alsatians that will deliver you a nice cold Kronenbourg 1664 beer for free, if you happen to make a reservation and swing by the bar.
Now, they haven’t quite mastered pouring a pint just yet, so how do these beers get to you? Well, attached to the dog’s collar is a lightweight miniature barrel. You unlock that, and you’ll find a chilled bottle of beer inside.
The pooches are doing most of the legwork at this special bar, but there are a few humans on hand to restock the kegs. Get in there quick if you want a pup to bound over to you with a beer though, it’s only open in London for a few hours this Friday.
Pretty pawsome, if you ask me.
Difficult words: barktender (this is a pun; bark – the sound which dogs make; bartender – a person who serves alcohol),, swing by (to stop by), attached (fixed to), pooch (dog), keg (a small barrel), pawsome (this is a pun; awesome – great; paw – an animal’s foot).
Source: http://www.ondemandnews.com
Here’s an article you can read and listen to from http://www.newsinlevels.com. This is level 3, if it’s too difficult, go to the website and choose level 2.
A light show like no other – this is lightning striking Earth from space. The dazzling footage was captured by British astronaut Tim Peake who tweeted the time-lapse video taken from the International Space Station as they flew from North Africa over Turkey and towards Russia.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second (299,338 kilometres per second) meaning lightning is visible when it strikes. It’s normally followed by thunder with the time between the two varying, but if 15 seconds passes before thunder rumbles, then lightning’s around three miles away (4.8 kilometres).
Forty-three-year-old Peak, who’s a former army major, blasted off to the ISS as part of a six-month mission for the European Space Agency in December and recently became the first astronaut representing Britain to carry out a space walk.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard from Tim Peake as he soars around our planet; last night, he tweeted a picture of the waxing moon to his over 400,000 followers.
And for him, this is just another truly out of this world experience.
Difficult words: lightning (the electricity in the sky), strike (to hit), dazzling (extremely impressive), footage (video), thunder (the sound which you hear after a lightning strike), vary (to be different every time), former (-ex), blast off (to take off in a rocket), soar (to move in the sky), waxing (growing, expending in illumination), out of this world (this means two things: the astronaut is not on earth and something that is very exciting and amazing).
Source: http://www.ondemandnews.com
Here is a video and text from an excellent website called www.newsinlevels.com
After flying some 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometres) across 23 countries, British adventurer Tracy Curtis Taylor touches down in Darwin, Australia after a twenty-day solo flight in a biplane from England.
Her trip was to pay tribute to Amy Johnson’s famous flight in 1930, when she became the first female pilot to fly solo from England to Australia.
“My flight is very much a tribute to her, so it is yet celebrating what the pioneers achieved and what women achieve now in aviation, as well.”
Curtis Taylor left England at the start of October in this, a Boeing 1942 Stearman, which has a simple stick and rudder for controls in an open cockpit, exposing a pilot to the elements.
“As you can see, it’s fairly devastating on the skin and the hair and so forth, so it’s tiring, it’s really tiring, it’s the noise, the vibration, the exposure…”
The plane will now be shipped to America and flown across the United States to complete a world flight later in 2016.
Difficult words: biplane (an early type of aircraft with two pairs of wings, one above the other), pay tribute (to show respect), pioneer (somebody who is among the first to do something), rudder (a flat piece of metal that helps to steer a plane or boat), expose (to be unprotected, especially from the weather), exposure (to expose – verb; exposure – noun).
Source: http://www.ondemandnews.com
Here’s a short but difficult tongue twister that is not as easy as it looks. It gets you to practise making a difference between your ‘s’ and ‘th’ sound. A big challenge for native French speakers!
“Thirty-six thick silk threads”
Listen, repeat and keep practising until you can repeat it quickly and fluently.
Here’s a tongue twister that will have your tongue in knots. It gets you to practise your “sh” sound. Not easy for Spanish speakers!
“Fresh fried fish, fish fresh fried, fish fried fresh, fresh fish fried!”
Listen, repeat and keep practising until you master it!
Here’s another tongue twister that gets you to practise your “ch” and “k” sounds. It’s more diificult than you think.
“I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen.”
Listen, repeat and keep practising until you master it!
englishteacherjohn 